Baltimore_900
Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2015
- Messages
- 45
He exists within the urban environment and in many other locations. In some countries and cultures, he is both a food source and a delicacy. To many of us, however, he is a dangerous pest containing rabies and many other diseases. He's not dumb. He is very skillful at evading the neck-breaking bar on a rat trap and can sometimes grab the bait right off the trigger mechanism without springing the trap. He can find ways to enter your home. In short order, he can develop tactics to evade you. Sun Tzu in 'The Art of War' tells you in Chapter III covering Strategic Attack to know your enemy and yourself.
The best-known rat species are the black rat (Rattus rattus) and the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). The group is generally known as the Old World rats or true rats, and originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over 500 grams (1.1 lb) in the wild. You can learn more from Wikipedia
So, what about you? Do you have what it takes to out-maneuver The Tactical Rat and regain control of your environment? For many of us, traps don't work for long even when we modify them to spring like a hair trigger on a precision sniper rifle. Poison gets messy and can become a real problem if you have pets. Also, rats have a nasty habit of crawling off to some secluded place to die and then result in a horrific smell until the body is tracked down and disposed of.
What to do? I was faced with the same problem which began on or about June of 2009 when I moved into a less than stellar two family apartment building in a low income urban area. Not one my smarter moves, but educational none the less.
My Springfield Armory M1A chambered for 7.62x51mm was obviously not the answer and neither was my Remington 870 12 gauge. In different settings perhaps, but not there. Not when Mr. Tactical Rat had finally found a way to show up on my stovetop and counter tops. Yes, he had finally developed ways to actually breach my perimeter and get inside. Not good.
There it was. I studied his tactics and had to find a way to safely and effectively neutralize the threat. The answer came from my childhood. An air rifle which could accurately shoot a .177 caliber pellet with enough power to get the job done. A quick trip to a local Walmart rewarded me with the purchase of a brand new Crosman 760 .177 multi-pump pellet rifle. For under $50 at the time, I got the rifle, pellets and a decent scope. There were other air rifles also available though I was familiar with the Crosman. My backyard consisted of roughly a 50'x50' concrete slab surrounded by a chain link fence. Overlooking all of this was a raised wooden deck with a railing. The deck itself was connected to the rear of the home just outside the kitchen area which somewhat explains how Mr. Tactical Rat found his way onto my stove and counter tops.
Why an air rifle? First, it was quiet. I could practice in the basement with a proper backstop and when necessary I could actually shoot rats right off my stove and counter tops. When pumped up 7-8 times using a pellet, I could get one shot stops without over penetration. No exit wounds. The rifle was more than accurate enough to deliver head shots. Shooting soda cans and such as a youngster was one thing, but war had been declared and I could not afford to be on the losing end. I knew that even one bite from a rat while sleeping could easily result in rabies and other diseases. Not to mention the problems encountered should Mr. Tactical Rat get into my food.
Operation: Rat was moved out onto the rear wooden deck. My illustrious and quite fashionable concrete backyard became my 'killzone' and I could easily use the railing on the wooden deck as a rest as well as a place to put my pellets, coffee and whatever else. This is where things got interesting and my education began as to what a decent .177 multi-pump pellet rifle could do given the requisite accuracy and power. Since I had been studying his tactics, I developed my own and was quickly getting one shot kills as soon as one of these evil creatures got into my killzone. Using the railing as a rest quickly became too easy and so I reverted to using all four positions just to keep things interesting. Since there was an alleyway directly beyond the chainlink fence and another crossing it which came from a parallel street, I quickly found the raised wooden deck gave me the height necessary to shoot over the fence and nail Mr. Tactical Rat out to 25-40 yards. Well out of my killzone, but the scope allowed me to see them under street lights and sitting on garbage can lids. It took two months approximately, but the war against Mr. Tactical Rat was won. Although shots inside the house could and would occur at any time, outside operations had to be conducted overnight so as to not draw undue attention from nosy neighbors. Again, the near silent operation of the air rifle was beneficial. The nearby dumpster was a great place to dump the 10-12 rats nailed during the night before sunrise.
You can go to YouTube and find a few videos of shooters who have gone to great extents to eliminate Mr. Tactical Rat. High priced weapons, top quality suppressors and night vision scopes. Air rifles that cost somebody a lot of money. $200-$300 plus in some cases. Match grade pellets. All of which is probably financially out of reach for many of us.
The reality is that with today's advances in air rifle technology and upgrades, you can easily defeat Mr. Tactical Rat with a lowcost .177 caliber multi-pump pellet rifle. My first encounter involved the Crosman 760 though recently I had the dubious good fortune to spend two days cleaning up a similar problem with a friend of mine who owned a Daisy 880 Powerline which came with a scope. It had a rifled barrel which served well to stabilize the pellets at longer ranges. It was both accurate and powerful. I brought along my new Bear River Sportsman 900. Both did extremely well at their assigned tasks. There are many lowcost multi-pump .177 pellet rifles these days which are also accurate and more than powerful enough to deal with Mr. Tactical Rat. Most can be had for under $100 USD.
Regardless of whether you go 'bigbucks' or stick with the above lowcost options, it all ultimately comes down to you. Practice. Learn what your rifle is capable of and what pellets work best with it. It has been said by some air gun authorities that accuracy degrades past the 950 fps mark. Most of the abovementioned lowcost multi-pump options currently available come in at around 550-800 fps depending on the pellet(s) used. They get the job done within the parameters they were designed to operate in.
I will soon have the opportunity to work with a .177 break barrel model which can consistently place four shot groups that can be covered by a dime at around 32 yards even with the scope it comes with. I am confident I will be able to extend that range and yet this model has the capability to go supersonic with the right pellets. Accuracy, serious power and a pricetag generally under $150. There just might be a YouTube video in the near future.
There is a particular pellet designed and manufactured by a company that is well known for its ability to produce .177 caliber pellets that can drop below the 950 fps mark and still expand to approximately twice its original diameter in a soft tissue target (rats, rabbits and perhaps raccoons). We might just end up with a combination resulting in an immediate surrender in Ratland.
The best-known rat species are the black rat (Rattus rattus) and the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). The group is generally known as the Old World rats or true rats, and originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over 500 grams (1.1 lb) in the wild. You can learn more from Wikipedia
So, what about you? Do you have what it takes to out-maneuver The Tactical Rat and regain control of your environment? For many of us, traps don't work for long even when we modify them to spring like a hair trigger on a precision sniper rifle. Poison gets messy and can become a real problem if you have pets. Also, rats have a nasty habit of crawling off to some secluded place to die and then result in a horrific smell until the body is tracked down and disposed of.
What to do? I was faced with the same problem which began on or about June of 2009 when I moved into a less than stellar two family apartment building in a low income urban area. Not one my smarter moves, but educational none the less.
My Springfield Armory M1A chambered for 7.62x51mm was obviously not the answer and neither was my Remington 870 12 gauge. In different settings perhaps, but not there. Not when Mr. Tactical Rat had finally found a way to show up on my stovetop and counter tops. Yes, he had finally developed ways to actually breach my perimeter and get inside. Not good.
There it was. I studied his tactics and had to find a way to safely and effectively neutralize the threat. The answer came from my childhood. An air rifle which could accurately shoot a .177 caliber pellet with enough power to get the job done. A quick trip to a local Walmart rewarded me with the purchase of a brand new Crosman 760 .177 multi-pump pellet rifle. For under $50 at the time, I got the rifle, pellets and a decent scope. There were other air rifles also available though I was familiar with the Crosman. My backyard consisted of roughly a 50'x50' concrete slab surrounded by a chain link fence. Overlooking all of this was a raised wooden deck with a railing. The deck itself was connected to the rear of the home just outside the kitchen area which somewhat explains how Mr. Tactical Rat found his way onto my stove and counter tops.
Why an air rifle? First, it was quiet. I could practice in the basement with a proper backstop and when necessary I could actually shoot rats right off my stove and counter tops. When pumped up 7-8 times using a pellet, I could get one shot stops without over penetration. No exit wounds. The rifle was more than accurate enough to deliver head shots. Shooting soda cans and such as a youngster was one thing, but war had been declared and I could not afford to be on the losing end. I knew that even one bite from a rat while sleeping could easily result in rabies and other diseases. Not to mention the problems encountered should Mr. Tactical Rat get into my food.
Operation: Rat was moved out onto the rear wooden deck. My illustrious and quite fashionable concrete backyard became my 'killzone' and I could easily use the railing on the wooden deck as a rest as well as a place to put my pellets, coffee and whatever else. This is where things got interesting and my education began as to what a decent .177 multi-pump pellet rifle could do given the requisite accuracy and power. Since I had been studying his tactics, I developed my own and was quickly getting one shot kills as soon as one of these evil creatures got into my killzone. Using the railing as a rest quickly became too easy and so I reverted to using all four positions just to keep things interesting. Since there was an alleyway directly beyond the chainlink fence and another crossing it which came from a parallel street, I quickly found the raised wooden deck gave me the height necessary to shoot over the fence and nail Mr. Tactical Rat out to 25-40 yards. Well out of my killzone, but the scope allowed me to see them under street lights and sitting on garbage can lids. It took two months approximately, but the war against Mr. Tactical Rat was won. Although shots inside the house could and would occur at any time, outside operations had to be conducted overnight so as to not draw undue attention from nosy neighbors. Again, the near silent operation of the air rifle was beneficial. The nearby dumpster was a great place to dump the 10-12 rats nailed during the night before sunrise.
You can go to YouTube and find a few videos of shooters who have gone to great extents to eliminate Mr. Tactical Rat. High priced weapons, top quality suppressors and night vision scopes. Air rifles that cost somebody a lot of money. $200-$300 plus in some cases. Match grade pellets. All of which is probably financially out of reach for many of us.
The reality is that with today's advances in air rifle technology and upgrades, you can easily defeat Mr. Tactical Rat with a lowcost .177 caliber multi-pump pellet rifle. My first encounter involved the Crosman 760 though recently I had the dubious good fortune to spend two days cleaning up a similar problem with a friend of mine who owned a Daisy 880 Powerline which came with a scope. It had a rifled barrel which served well to stabilize the pellets at longer ranges. It was both accurate and powerful. I brought along my new Bear River Sportsman 900. Both did extremely well at their assigned tasks. There are many lowcost multi-pump .177 pellet rifles these days which are also accurate and more than powerful enough to deal with Mr. Tactical Rat. Most can be had for under $100 USD.
Regardless of whether you go 'bigbucks' or stick with the above lowcost options, it all ultimately comes down to you. Practice. Learn what your rifle is capable of and what pellets work best with it. It has been said by some air gun authorities that accuracy degrades past the 950 fps mark. Most of the abovementioned lowcost multi-pump options currently available come in at around 550-800 fps depending on the pellet(s) used. They get the job done within the parameters they were designed to operate in.
I will soon have the opportunity to work with a .177 break barrel model which can consistently place four shot groups that can be covered by a dime at around 32 yards even with the scope it comes with. I am confident I will be able to extend that range and yet this model has the capability to go supersonic with the right pellets. Accuracy, serious power and a pricetag generally under $150. There just might be a YouTube video in the near future.
There is a particular pellet designed and manufactured by a company that is well known for its ability to produce .177 caliber pellets that can drop below the 950 fps mark and still expand to approximately twice its original diameter in a soft tissue target (rats, rabbits and perhaps raccoons). We might just end up with a combination resulting in an immediate surrender in Ratland.
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